


FrankIntern

by Meilan_Firaga, VisiblePetrichor



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, Gen, Inspired by Frankenstein, Monsters, Spooky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:14:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27071059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meilan_Firaga/pseuds/Meilan_Firaga, https://archiveofourown.org/users/VisiblePetrichor/pseuds/VisiblePetrichor
Summary: After Thor returns to Asgard in pursuit of Loki, Erik starts to notice things about Darcy that make him uncomfortable. Something about her seems almost... created...
Relationships: Jane Foster & Darcy Lewis, Jane Foster & Darcy Lewis & Erik Selvig
Comments: 13
Kudos: 32
Collections: The Monster Mash





	FrankIntern

**Author's Note:**

> For The Darcyverse 2020 Darcylvania Event.
> 
> Moodboard by VisiblePetrichor.  
> Fic by Meilan_Firaga.

Something about Jane’s intern wasn’t right, and Erik didn’t mean the quirky sense of humor and major in political science. It was in the sometimes jerky way she moved, the moments when she’d go so perfectly still he could swear she was dead, and the confusion at basic things that sometimes crossed her face. It didn’t really catch his attention when he first arrived in Puente Antiguo. There had been too many other things to focus on, first with Jane’s research and then with the Norse god falling out of the sky. Once the distractions were gone and S.H.I.E.L.D. had returned their equipment things began to stick out.

He watched as Darcy carried one of Jane’s homemade pieces of equipment across the lab. Every few steps her right foot would twitch and drag awkwardly, like some sort of intermittent limp. Once she had the machine settled on the counter, she braced herself and shook her foot out to one side. Erik had to blink and shake his head. For half a second it looked like her foot had spun in a complete circle on her ankle.

Then, while he watched, she went to lean back against the counter. One of her hands missed its mark, slipping against the counter’s edge and sliding right into the sharp edges of a pair of shears Jane had left lying about. The cut was deep. Almost half an inch of the shears disappeared into her hand. 

She didn’t flinch. 

There was no blood.

Erik rushed to Jane’s side, took hold of her arm, and dragged her through the front door. She protested, a pen flying from her hand as they went, but she let him drag her out all the same. As soon as the door closed behind them he let her arm go and placed one hand on each of her shoulders.

“Jane,” he began, giving her a little shake. “ _ What is she? _ ”

Jane huffed. “She’s my intern, Eric.”

“Yes, but what else?” He shook her, grip on her shoulders tightening. “We can have no more secrets, Jane. Not with S.H.I.E.L.D. breathing down our necks.” Releasing one shoulder, he pointed violently back toward the lab. “I just watched her get stabbed in the hand and not even notice!”

“Yesterday you didn’t notice you weren’t wearing pants until you’d scarred the both of us,” Jane pointed out, an unamused glare crossing her features.

“Stop changing the subject,” Erik insisted. “Tell me the truth, Jane. What do you really know about this intern you’ve hired.”

The only sound was the whistle of wind across the desert. Jane stood firm in front of him, a sour expression on her face. She shrugged off the hand he had on her other shoulder, crossing her arms over her chest. Erik stood firm, crossing his own arms and staring her down. They stood that way for several long moments before she finally looked away, defeated.

“There weren’t any applicants.” She confessed. “I had the opening posted for six months and there wasn’t a single one.” She heaved an exhausted sigh. “Biology isn’t my forte, but I had access to the research of so many experts and the cadavers were just going to be cremated when the anatomy department was done with them.”

A ball of cold dread settled in Erik’s stomach. “Please tell me you’re not saying what I think you’re saying.”

“I need an intern, Erik,” Jane hissed. “It’s not my fault it worked.”

Erik exploded.

"I cannot believe you, Jane!” He shouted. “Of all the moronic, dangerous,  _ unethical _ nightmares!” He sputtered, struggling to find the right words to express his horror. “You said yourself that biology isn’t your forte. Do you have any idea how horribly this could have gone?” A growl rose up in his throat as his brain supplied a few interesting facts. “Bruce Banner his an expert in biomedical engineering and his attempt to replicate the creation of Captain America TURNED HIM INTO A MONSTER!”

“She is not a monster!” Jane shouted back before she wavered and corrected herself. “Well, she kind of is, but she doesn’t hurt people!” She stamped on foot in irritation. “It’s not like you were around to give me a hand.”

“That’s what you want to take away from this?” He demanded. “I left for eight months, and you  _ created a Frankenstein! _ "

The lab door creaked, and Darcy poked her head out. "Common misconception: Frankenstein was the doctor, not the monster." 

"I had to use a lit major's brain,” Jane pointed out conversationally, and Erik groaned. “She has to put a dollar in The Pretentious Jar every time she pulls a 'well, actually' and drops a fact no one cares about."

“Did it before I came out.” Darcy gave them both a bright smile. “Should I, like, shuffle off to the diner while you guys argue about my existence? Or is it cool if I just put in my earbuds and keep straightening out all this data?”

“We’re not arguing about your continued existence,” Jane assured her with a sigh, scrubbing one hand over her eyes. “Erik just isn’t fond of how you came to be.”

“That’s fair.” Darcy propped one shoulder against the doorframe. “I wasn’t too fond of it at first either.” 

“And you are now?” Erik asked dryly. 

She shrugged. “I mean, it would be pretty crappy to be mad at being alive.”

“I’m not asking you to be offended that you’re alive.” Erik let out a sigh of his own. Why did it feel like he was the only one being reasonable about all this? “Surely you can understand the moral and legal dilemmas surrounding this situation.”

“I guess,” Darcy admitted. “Although, I’m pretty sure the only real crime Jane committed was the brain theft thing, which was really kind of a rescue scenario. The mortician that prepped that poor girl’s body was gonna keep it in a jar like a weirdo. The rest of the body stuff was kind of just recycling and—”

Erik raised a hand to silence the storytelling before she could go into more detail. He took several long, deep breaths, trying to process. Finally, he came to a conclusion: what he really needed was to not come to a conclusion.

“Okay, I have a plan,” he insisted. “I am going to the bar. I’m going to pretend like I’m drinking with Thor again. And when I get back we’re never going to talk about this again.”

He didn’t wait for Jane or Darcy to respond. Instead, he took off toward town at a brisk pace, mentally calculating how much whiskey it was going to take to wipe his mind. As he walked away, Darcy turned to Jane.

“Does that mean I can’t ask him to stitch me up when my knee disconnects next time?”

Erik doubled his mental whiskey count.


End file.
